Jubilee Hills byelection results icing on the cake for CM Revanth and team

The Congress party continues its victory march in Telangana politics with its backward caste leader candidate V. Naveen Yadav on the verge of winning in the by-election to Jubilee Hills Assembly constituency on Friday, November 14, 2025.

After winning the Secunderabad Cantonment seat in June 2024, the Congress party also won the Jubilee Hills seat from the Bharat Rashtra Samiti (BRS). The Secunderabad Cantonment by-election was necessitated due to the death of incumbent member Lasya Nanditha in a tragic road accident. Congress candidate Narayanan Sri Ganesh had won the Cantonment seat in 2024 by a margin of over 13,200 votes.

The Jubilee Hills by-election was necessitated after the demise of BRS MLA Maganti Gopinath in June this year. While the Congress has fielded Naveen Yadav, the main opposition BRS has fielded Gopinath’s wife Maganti Sunitha, the BJP has chosen Lankala Deepak Reddy as its candidate.

In the highly contentious tripartite fight between the Congress, BRS and the BJP, the ruling party’s strategy and intense focus on reaching the nooks and crannies of the constituency seem to have enabled it to progress smoothly in the polls. Congress cadres led by Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy and Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka and a team of a dozen Ministers did not give any scope to the Opposition parties in terms of campaigning.

development agenda

Talking about the development agenda and the 10-year misrule of the BRS regime, the Congress hit the target by portraying the BRS and the BJP as enemies of the development of the State. BRS working president KTRama Rao and Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy bore the brunt of the harsh attack by the Prime Minister and his cabinet colleagues. The campaign hit a new low as all parties turned to personal attacks and underhanded statements.

Senior officials of the Telangana Pradesh Congress Committee (TPCC) said that during elections, rural voters generally prefer to vote for a party that attracts them with welfare-oriented schemes, while in urban areas, development plan is given priority. “In the Jubilee Hills incident, the Congress party noted that development and improvement of city infrastructure was at the top of its agenda,” said a senior leader, adding that this helped the ruling party consolidate votes.

Another leader said the Congress party’s tactical decision to field BC and a youth leader as its candidate has strengthened its resolve to take forward the 42% quota decision for BCs in local bodies. BRS and BJP preferred to give tickets to forward caste candidates, which helped the ruling Congress and its local candidate Naveen Yadav.

Significant minority votes

Considering the effective minority votes, the Congress Government made a surprise move by removing former MP Md. He inducted Azharuddin into the State Cabinet in the middle of the election campaign, thereby sending a positive signal among Muslim voters who number over one lakh in the constituency. AIMIM’s open support for the Congress candidate has contributed to the shift of Muslim votes to the Congress party, which has so far remained with the BRS in the last two elections.

Unity among Congress leaders (especially the Prime Minister, Deputy Chief Minister and several Ministers) and their extensive campaigning, with the help of TPCC president B. Mahesh Kumar Goud and AICC in-charge Meenakshi Natarajan, improved the chances of the ruling party candidate. Sympathy for Mr. Naveen Yadav, who lost twice from the same constituency, also helped him garner votes.

BRS chart falls further

For the BRS, the decline continues since it lost power in 2023 and remains vacant in the Lok Sabha elections in 2024. He also fielded the Congress in the Secunderabad Cantonment Assembly by-election and is now on the verge of losing the Jubilee Hills seat as well.

Sources claimed that the absence of former Chief Minister and BRS president K. Chandrashekar Rao, who stayed away from the campaign, was visible. The entire burden of leading the campaign fell on KTR and he had to lead the party from the front. The loss of former Minister T. Harish Rao’s family also created a setback as Mr. Harish Rao could not actively participate. It was also noted that the senior leaders of the party did not campaign wholeheartedly in the selection of the party candidate.

Bad show from BJP

The Jubilee Hills by-election result is a nightmare for the BJP as party candidate Mr. Deepak Reddy fell behind by third place in the first round of counting. The party lost the deposit. It is believed that the BJP leadership did not campaign wholeheartedly in the elections. The bulk of the campaigning fell on party president N. Ramchander Rao, and occasional campaigning by Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy did not cut the ice with the voters. The Hindutva agenda pushed by another Union Minister Bandi Sanjay Kumar to polarize the voters did not affect the result.

The Congress party cannot remain complacent after its impressive victory in the Jubilee Hills by-election; because it needs to go a long way in repeating its winning ways in local elections.